[MassHistPres] mpact of LHDs on RE values

[Dennis De Witt]

Jill

It was in last Sunday's NYT

Dennis


On Jul 12, 2007, at 8:19 AM, Jill Fisher wrote:

> Dennis - This is a great article to keep on file - do you happen to  
> have the date it was published?  Citations always increase the  
> credibility of a handout!  Thanks.  Jill
>
>
> Jill Fisher, AICP
> Principal Planner
> Larson Fisher Associates, Inc.
> Historic Preservation & Planning Services
> PO Box 1394
> Woodstock, NY  12498
> 845-679-5054
> jillfisher47 at hotmail.com
>
> www.larsonfisher.com
>
>
>
>
>
>> From: Dennis De Witt <djdewitt at rcn.com>
>> To: MHC listserve <masshistpres at cs.umb.edu>
>> Subject: [MassHistPres] mpact of LHDs on RE values
>> Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2007 07:20:23 -0400
>>
>> As the question of the impact of LHDs on RE values always comes up
>> when an LHD is being proposed, the following from the New York Times
>> is worth keeping on file.  Note the bold face paragraph.
>>
>> Dennis De Witt
>>
>>
>>
>> State Senator John Sabini, whose district includes Jackson Heights,
>> has held public office for 15 years. One of his achievements came in
>> 1993, when, as a city councilman, he helped persuade the Landmarks
>> Preservation Commission to designate the Jackson Heights Historic
>> District.
>>
>> But Mr. Sabini, a lifelong neighborhood resident, has never himself
>> lived within the historic district. Nor is his local office, at 88th
>> Street and 35th Avenue, located there. “I can’t afford it,” he
>> explained, laughing.
>>
>> When a historic district is born — the city’s 88th, Sunnyside
>> Gardens, was approved on June 26 — its neighborhood frequently
>> becomes two neighborhoods. The street signs within the district are
>> terra-cotta rather than the standard green, but the distinctions go
>> far deeper than signs, involving money, aesthetics, image, even  
>> class.
>>
>> The Jackson Heights Historic District is an example.
>>
>> “There are a lot of beautiful homes in that section that are not in
>> other parts of the neighborhood,” said Pauline Conti, an owner of
>> Century 21 House Depot, a real estate firm. “It’s an area where the
>> prices always have been strong. As the market changes and as the
>> market repositions itself, it won’t be as affected as much as other
>> areas far from the historic district.”
>>
>> A 2003 study by the city’s Independent Budget Office found that
>> market values of properties in historic districts are higher and
>> appreciate at a slightly greater rate than those outside historic
>> districts. For example, the study, which covered the years 1975 to
>> 2002, found that the inflation-adjusted prices of properties within
>> historic districts rose by an average of 5.3 percent a year, while
>> those outside historic districts rose by an average of 4.2 percent.
>>
>> And the difference involves more than money. To walk the few blocks
>> from Little India and other undesignated sections of Jackson Heights
>> to the historic district is to travel from humble, sometimes teeming
>> streets to genteel serenity. The district, which comprises 538
>> structures on 36 of Jackson Heights’s 200 blocks, sometimes feels
>> like a different neighborhood altogether.
>>
>> Within the district, the two- and three-story brick buildings in the
>> Tudor and Georgian styles, most of which were built from 1910 to the
>> 1950s, are uniformly bordered by green lawns and black wrought-iron
>> gates, concealing the spacious interior gardens within. Influenced by
>> Europe’s Garden City movement, which aimed to avoid crowded tenement
>> conditions, the district’s developers built the nation’s first
>> cooperative garden apartments, as well as single-family homes in the
>> English Garden style.
>>
>> “The rich dudes in Manhattan used to bring their mistresses here,” Wu
>> Ming Zhang, who has lived in the neighborhood for a decade, said of
>> the historic district. “They’d tell their wives they’d be gone for
>> the weekend on business.”
>>
>> Daniel Karatzas, the author of the book “Jackson Heights: A Garden in
>> the City” and an agent at Beaudoin Realty Group, has found that
>> apartment buyers from outside the neighborhood not only call him but
>> even know the names and details of the Queen Elizabeth, the Fillmore,
>> the Belvedere and other individual buildings in the district.
>>
>> Mr. Karatzas said that storefronts on several blocks skirting the
>> historic district voluntarily adhere to the district’s aesthetic
>> standards, using awnings of only one color on a block, rather than
>> what he called the “mishmash” seen on thoroughfares outside the
>> district. “There’s a reflected glory,” he said.
>>
>> Like those few blocks of amenable storefronts, the exterior of Mr.
>> Sabini’s office pays subtle homage to the district of which it is not
>> a part.
>>
>> “My awning is in compliance with historic district rules.” He paused.
>> “I think it is. We made it forest green, which is one of the
>> acceptable colors.”
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